356 F.

3d 456

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.
Jack REIMER, a/k/a Jakob Reimer, Defendant-Appellant.
Docket No. 02-6286.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: August 6, 2003.
Decided: January 27, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of
New York, McKenna, J.
Ramsey Clark, (Lawrence W. Schilling, of counsel), New York, NY, for
Defendant-Appellant.
Gideon A. Schor, Assistant United States Attorney, (James B. Comey,
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, on the
brief; Jeffrey Oestericher, Assistant United States Attorney, of counsel;
Eli Rosenbaum, Director, and Jonathan Drimmer, Trial Attorney, for the
United States Department of Justice, Office of Special Investigations, of
counsel), New York, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Before: JACOBS and SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judges.*
SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judge.

The United States seeks to strip defendant-appellant Jack Reimer ("Reimer" or

"defendant") of his citizenship. The government argues that Reimer's conduct
during World War II should have rendered him ineligible to receive the visa
upon which he entered the country in 1952, see Displaced Persons Act of 1948
("DPA"), Pub.L. No. 80-774, 62 Stat. 1009 (1948), as amended by Pub.L. No.
81-555, 64 Stat. 219 (1950), and that his subsequent naturalization in 1959 was
"illegally procured," see Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA"), 8 U.S.C.
1451(a). Specifically, the government contends that, pursuant to section 13 of
the DPA, Reimer was ineligible for a visa, because during the war he assisted
the Nazis in persecution, or alternatively, because he was a member or

participant in a movement hostile to the United States. See DPA 13, 64 Stat.
at 227.
2

Following a bench trial, the United States District Court for the Eastern District
of New York (McKenna, J.) found that the government had met its burden of
proving by clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence, see Fedorenko v.
United States, 449 U.S. 490, 505, 101 S.Ct. 737, 66 L.Ed.2d 686 (1981), that
Reimer assisted in persecution of Jews at the behest of the Nazis, and ordered
Reimer's citizenship revoked. The district court, however, ruled against the
government on its claim that Reimer was a part of a movement hostile to the
United States.2 Reimer appeals, arguing that his aid to the Nazis which he
maintains was largely administrative and entirely involuntary cannot, as a
matter of law, constitute assistance in persecution. The government crossappeals, urging this Court to reverse the district court's ruling on its hostilemovement claim and find against Reimer on that basis as well. Because we
affirm on the ground that Reimer assisted in persecution, we need not reach the
issue raised by the government on cross-appeal.

BACKGROUND
3

In the aftermath of World War II, Congress passed the DPA in an effort to
permit at least some of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the
war to seek refuge in the United States, without regard to previous immigration
quotas. Fedorenko, 449 U.S. at 495, 101 S.Ct. 737; United States v. Sokolov,
814 F.2d 864, 868-69 (2d Cir.1987). At the same time, however, Congress
unequivocally provided that not all displaced persons were eligible for visas.
Among those barred from eligibility by section 13 of the DPA, as amended in
1950, was

any person who is or has been a member of or participated in any movement

which is or has been hostile to the United States or the form of government of
the United States, or ... any person who advocated or assisted in the persecution
of any person because of race, religion, or national origin, or ... any person who
has voluntarily borne arms against the United States during World War II.

DPA 13, 64 Stat. at 227.

Among the throngs of refugees and survivors of the death and work camps who
entered the United States on visas issued under the DPA, was Jack Reimer.

Although Reimer is of German descent, he was born in 1918 in the Ukraine and

grew up in the Soviet Union.3 Prior to the war, Reimer studied at a state school
to become a librarian. He spoke both German and Russian. In January 1940,
Reimer was drafted into the Russian army. When the Germans invaded the
Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Reimer was deployed into combat. He was
captured not long after and held by the Germans as a prisoner-of-war. After two
months in a camp at Biala-Podlaska, Poland, Reimer was transferred to the
infamous training camp at Trawnicki.
8

The purpose of the camp at Trawnicki was to train guards, who were then
placed under the control of the German Schutzstaffel ("SS"). Although the
guards provided a variety of logistical support to the German army, they played
a key role in furthering the Nazis' plan dubbed "Operation Reinhard" to
exterminate Poland's Jews. Thus, for example, the guards who were
collectively referred to as "Wachmannschaften" or "Trawnicki men" policed
concentration camps and cleared Poland's Jewish ghettos. The
Wachmannschaften, including Reimer, typically were uniformed, paid, given
leave, occasionally armed, and given the possibility of promotion.

Reimer's exact role in the Wachmannschaften was very much disputed at trial.
Reimer conceded in his testimony that he not only received guard training but
also assisted in the training of other Trawnicki men. He was promoted four
times, and awarded a medal for outstanding service to the German forces by a
non-German. Reimer maintained, however, that his responsibilities were
largely administrative and confined to accounting, translating, and keeping
track of supplies.

10

The government asserted that Reimer was in the thick of the

Wachmannschaften's operations. For example, the government presented
evidence that placed Reimer in Lublin, Czestochowa, and Warsaw when those
cities' Jewish ghettoes were cleared, and tens of thousands of Jews were forced
into concentration and labor camps. The government's expert witness testified
that these Wachmannschaften operations were customarily manned with no
more guards than were absolutely necessary to effectuate the mission's
objective of forcibly deporting the ghetto residents to concentration camps. The
government argued that this gave rise to an inference that Reimer's role in these
events could not merely have been limited to administrative support.

11

The district court largely refused to draw such inferences, instead confining
much of its factual findings to the version of events to which Reimer testified at
trial.4 The district court, however, found that even these facts were sufficient to
support the conclusion that Reimer assisted the Nazis in persecution. Reimer
testified to providing logistical support to other Wachmannschaften during the

ghetto clearings at Czestochowa and Warsaw, standing guard while armed

outside empty buildings in Lublin after the buildings had been cleared of
Jewish inhabitants, and being present when civilians were thrown into a pit and
murdered. Reimer was armed at the pit killing, and he admitted to having fired
on command when one of those in the pit was observed to be still alive,
although the district court credited Reimer's account that he fired over the
victim's head. Reimer also testified to witnessing the SS carry out mass killings
of Jews.
12

Near the end of the war, when the German army was in retreat, the Trawnicki
men, including Reimer, were consolidated into the "SS Battalion Streibel."
Around that time, Reimer applied for and was given German citizenship.
Although the record is sparse as to Reimer's precise conduct during the final
months of the war, we know he entered Germany around the same time that the
war was declared over. Seven years later, in 1952, Reimer applied for and was
granted a visa pursuant to the DPA. He acquired United States citizenship in
1959.

DISCUSSION
13

Of the questions presented to us, we answer only whether Reimer can, as a

matter of law, be said to have "assisted in the persecution of any person because
of race, religion, or national origin." DPA 13, 64 Stat. at 227. Reimer argues
that his conduct cannot amount to assistance in persecution because his service
in the Wachmannschaften was involuntary; his duties were largely
administrative; he engaged in no personal act of persecution; and he did not
know that those murdered in his presence were persecuted because of their
race, religion, or national origin. To find in Reimer's favor, however, we would
need to close our eyes to the facts as found by the district court, and overlook
that many of these same defenses have been rejected by prior decisions of this
Court and the Supreme Court. We will do neither.

14

The leading case on the interpretation of the DPA is Fedorenko v. United

States, 449 U.S. 490, 101 S.Ct. 737, 66 L.Ed.2d 686 (1981), in which the
Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Fifth Circuit ordering the
denaturalization of Feodor Fedorenko on the ground that he had made material
misrepresentations to authorities in obtaining his visa.5 Id. at 513, 101 S.Ct.
737. Fedorenko was drafted into the Russian army, captured and sent to a series
of prisoner-of-war camps, and then selected to go through military training at
the camp in Trawnicki, Poland. Id. at 494, 101 S.Ct. 737. Thereafter,
Fedorenko spent much of the remainder of the war as an armed guard at
concentration and labor camps. Id. Although Fedorenko admitted in his

testimony at trial that he once "followed orders and shot in the general direction
of" prisoners fleeing a concentration camp, Fedorenko maintained that he
usually just stood watch as a perimeter guard and that he was compelled to
provide such service against his will. Id. at 500, 101 S.Ct. 737.
15

The Supreme Court, however, found that Fedorenko's conduct during the war
would have rendered him ineligible to receive a visa, because the DPA "made
all those who assisted in the persecution of civilians ineligible for visas." Id. at
512, 101 S.Ct. 737. Further, in explaining its conclusion that Fedorenko's
conduct constituted assistance in persecution, the Court stated the following:

16

[A]n individual who did no more than cut the hair of female inmates before
they were executed cannot be found to have assisted in the persecution of
civilians. On the other hand, there can be no question that a guard who was
issued a uniform and armed with a rifle and a pistol, who was paid a stipend
and was regularly allowed to leave the concentration camp to visit a nearby
village, and who admitted to shooting at escaping inmates on orders from the
commandant of the camp, fits within the statutory language about persons who
assisted in the persecution of civilians.

17

Id. at 512 n. 34, 101 S.Ct. 737. Thus, although the Court acknowledged that "
[o]ther cases may present more difficult line-drawing problems," Fedorenko's
conduct provides lower courts with a clear example of assistance in persecution.
Id.

18

As an initial matter, Reimer argues that it would be unjust to consider his

wartime conduct "assistance" in persecution, contending that he was obliged
either to go along with the commands of his superiors, or to face death himself.
This argument, however, is plainly foreclosed by Fedorenko. There, the
Supreme Court rejected the argument that those forced into the Nazis' service
should not be held responsible for their conduct, reasoning that, if Congress
had intended for visas to be withheld from only those who voluntarily assisted
in persecution, it would have so stated in the DPA. Id. (noting Congress's
deliberate use of the word "voluntary" elsewhere in the statute). Following
Fedorenko, the voluntariness of Reimer's conduct is therefore not determinative
of whether he assisted in persecution.

19

Rather, our task is to decide where Reimer's conduct falls "between the
extremes of the death camp barber and the weapon wielding guard." United
States v. Sprogis, 763 F.2d 115, 121 (2d Cir.1985). As the similarities between
Reimer and Fedorenko are readily apparent, even at first glance, we find this

task not particularly difficult. Both Reimer and Fedorenko began the war as
draftees into the Russian army. Both were captured by the Germans and kept as
prisoners of war. Both were sent to Trawnicki where they were put through
compulsory guard training. Both were thereafter uniformed, paid, and
occasionally given leave.
20

Reimer contends, however, that the similarities end there. Reimer argues that
while Fedorenko went on to serve as an armed guard at camps in which the
prisoners were systematically worked or put to death, he was relegated to the
role of a low-level bureaucrat, merely doling out pay and supplies to other
guards. The facts, and indeed much of Reimer's own testimony at trial, belie
this purported passivity.

21

Reimer not only went through military training at Trawnicki but also then
trained other Wachmannschaften. He was, moreover, dispatched from
Trawnicki on a number of missions, and was present in Lublin, Czestochowa,
and Warsaw when the Wachmannschaften forcibly cleared those cities' Jewish
ghettos. Although the district court found that Reimer's responsibilities in both
Czestochowa and Warsaw were confined to feeding and paying those
Wachmannschaften more directly responsible for clearing the ghettos, Reimer
was armed in Lublin and stood guard outside expropriated Jewish property.

22

Perhaps most damning to Reimer's argument, however, is that on at least one

occasion he stood, armed, at the edge of a pit into which people some alive
and others dead had been thrown. When one of the men who lay in the pit
moved slightly, Reimer was ordered to fire. He did. The man in the pit was
killed. Reimer maintains that the fatal bullet did not come from his gun, but
from that of one of the other armed guards who fired from the pit's edge. He
testified that he deliberately fired over, and not into, the pit. Even crediting such
a self-serving assertion, as the district court did, we do not think that whether
Reimer assisted in persecution turns on such a distinction. We find it no less an
act of assistance in persecution that Reimer, whose presence just as much as
that of the other armed guards forced the victim to remain in the pit waiting to
be murdered, ultimately fired over the victim's head.6

23

We also reject Reimer's argument, relying on this Court's decision in Sprogis,

that his conduct does not constitute assistance in persecution because he did not
"personally carry[] out Nazi-ordered oppression." Sprogis, 763 F.2d at 122. In
Sprogis, we held that the government had not met its high burden of proving
that the defendant had assisted in persecution, where the evidence suggested
that Elmars Sprogis "only ... passively accommodated the Nazis, while
performing occasional ministerial tasks" which his position as a Latvian police

officer required. Id. at 122-23. Reimer would have us read our decision in
Sprogis to require proof that the defendant engaged in a "personal act" of
persecution in every case. But even assuming that is the proper reading of
Sprogis, we find that Reimer clearly engaged in a sufficiently personal act of
persecution to distinguish this case from Sprogis.7
24

Lastly, although Reimer's papers on appeal fail to make the point, Reimer
argued below and at oral argument that he was unaware that the man in the pit
who was killed in his presence was being persecuted "because of race, religion,
or national origin." DPA 13, 64 Stat. at 227 (emphasis added). We conclude,
however, that following our decision in Maikovskis, the government did not
need to prove that Reimer "identified himself with the Nazis' basis for
persecution." Maikovskis, 773 F.2d at 445 (interpreting language of deportation
statute, 8 U.S.C. 1251(a)(19), which is similar to that of the DPA). It is
enough that the government showed by clear, unequivocal, and convincing
evidence that Reimer, on orders from the Nazis, assisted in conduct that fits our
conception of persecution. See Fedorenko, 449 U.S. at 512 n. 34, 101 S.Ct. 737
(instructing courts to "focus[] on whether particular conduct can be considered
assisting in the persecution of civilians") (emphasis in original); Sokolov, 814
F.2d at 874 ("Webster's Dictionary defines `persecution' as `the infliction of
sufferings, harm, or death on those who differ ... in a way regarded as offensive
or meriting extirpation,' and as `a campaign having for its object the
subjugation or extirpation of the adherents of a religion.'").

25

We hold that the government has met its burden, and has shown that Reimer
was not in possession of a valid visa when admitted for permanent residence.
See 8 U.S.C. 1427(a)(1). Because we find Reimer "failed to comply with ...
`the congressionally imposed prerequisites to the acquisition of citizenship,'"
Sokolov, 814 F.2d at 873 (quoting Sprogis, 763 F.2d at 117 n. 2), Reimer's
citizenship was properly revoked by order of the district court. Although the
record does not suggest other than that Reimer has lived a long and law-abiding
life as a U.S. citizen, Reimer's arguments in this regard fail, as courts are
without equitable power to "excuse illegal or fraudulent procurement of
citizenship." Fedorenko, 449 U.S. at 517, 101 S.Ct. 737.

26

Because we affirm the decision below on the ground that Reimer assisted in
persecution, we need not consider whether the district court was right to
conclude that Reimer's membership and participation in the
Wachmannschaften, and later in the SS Battalion Streibel, did not make him a
"person who is or has been a member of or participated in a movement which is
or has been hostile the United States."8 DPA 13, 64 Stat. at 227.

CONCLUSION
27

For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court
ordering the revocation of defendant's citizenship, setting aside the April 28,
1959 order admitting defendant to citizenship, and cancelling defendant's
certificate of naturalization.

Notes:
*

The Honorable Fred I. Parker, who was a member of the panel, died following
argument, and the appeal is being decided by the remaining two members of
the panel, who are in agreementSee 2d Cir. R. 0.14(b).

The district court also ruled against the government on its claim, brought under
section 10 of the DPA, that Reimer's citizenship should be revoked because he
"willfully ma[de] a misrepresentation for the purpose of gaining admission into
the United States as an eligible Displaced Person." DPA 10, 62 Stat. at 1013.
We need not address the claim, as the government has not challenged that
aspect of the decision on cross-appeal

These facts are taken from the thorough opinion of the district courtSee United
States v. Reimer, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26356, at *9-*21, 2002 WL 32101927
(S.D.N.Y. Sept. 3, 2002). Much of the history that informed the district court's
opinion was taken from the report of the government's expert witness, which
was admitted into evidence and contained facts not disputed by defendant. Id. at
*10 n. 2, 2002 WL 32101927.

We are more than satisfied that the district court held the government to a
sufficiently high burden to satisfy the "clear, unequivocal, and convincing"
standard of review the Supreme Court has held applicable in cases seeking
revocation of citizenshipFedorenko, 449 U.S. at 505, 101 S.Ct. 737. Moreover,
Reimer does not challenge the district court's factual findings.

Although the government's claim against Fedorenko was somewhat different

than the claim asserted against Reimer in this appeal,Fedorenko is nevertheless
the appropriate starting point for our analysis. The claim asserted against
Fedorenko was that he unlawfully made material misrepresentations in
procuring his visa and naturalization. Fedorenko, 449 U.S. at 507-08, 101 S.Ct.
737. In reaching the conclusion that Fedorenko's misstatements were
"material," the Supreme Court reasoned that a material misstatement is one that
altered facts that, had they been known to the visa-issuing officer at the time,
would have precluded the issuance of the visa. Id. at 509, 101 S.Ct. 737.

Fedorenko's misstatements were material because they concealed his actual

conduct during the war. That conduct, the Supreme Court held, constituted
assistance in persecution under the DPA for which Fedorenko's visa would
have been denied. Id. at 512-13, 101 S.Ct. 737. Further, the "assisted in
persecution" language interpreted by the Supreme Court in Fedorenko was later
incorporated into section 13 of the DPA, pursuant to which the claim now
before us is brought. See Petkiewytsch v. INS, 945 F.2d 871, 876 (6th Cir.1991)
(discussing 1950 amendments to section 13).
6

It is noteworthy that the Supreme Court concluded that Fedorenko had assisted
in persecution, even absent a finding that Fedorenko made contact with any of
the escaping prisoners upon whom he fired. Although the Supreme Court
characterized Fedorenko as having shot "at escaping inmates," Fedorenko, 449
U.S. at 512 n. 34, 101 S.Ct. 737 (emphasis added), the Court elsewhere noted
that Fedorenko testified to only having "shot in the general direction of" those
who fled. Id. at 500, 101 S.Ct. 737 (emphasis added). Indeed, the district court
in that case found that it "doubt[ed] that [Fedorenko] did anything other than
shoot over [the inmates'] heads." United States v. Fedorenko, 455 F.Supp. 893,
914 (S.D.Fla.1978).

We note that in a case decided afterSprogis, we found that a defendant who

merely authored anti-Semitic articles for Nazi propaganda illegally procured his
visa under the DPA, even though "there was no showing of actual persecution
of Jews." United States v. Sokolov, 814 F.2d 864, 874 (2d Cir.1987) (noting
that DPA disqualified from visa-eligibility those who assisted or advocated
persecution); see also Maikovskis v. INS, 773 F.2d 435, 446 (2d Cir.1985)
(finding assistance in persecution without explicit reference to a personal act of
persecution); cf. Ofosu v. McElroy, 98 F.3d 694, 701 (2d Cir.1996) (interpreting
asylum statute in light of judicial constructions of "other immigration
legislation," for which "personal involvement in killing or torture is not
necessary to impose responsibility for assisting or participating in
persecution"). But cf. Petkiewytsch v. INS, 945 F.2d 871, 879-80 (6th Cir.1991)
(holding under deportation statute modeled on the DPA, see 8 U.S.C. 1251(a)
(19), that proof of personal active assistance or participation in persecutorial
acts is required); Laipenieks v. INS, 750 F.2d 1427, 1434-35 (9th Cir.1985)
(same) (cited in Sprogis, 763 F.2d at 122).
Nor, in light of our finding that Reimer personally participated in persecution,
do we need to address Reimer's attempts to distinguish this case from those in
which courts have found that a defendant's service as an armed guard obviates
the need to show the defendant's personal participation in persecution. See
United States v. Szehinskyj, 277 F.3d 331, 339 (3d Cir.2002) (holding that
where defendant is an armed guard "personal participation in atrocities is not

required for one to have assisted in persecution"); United States v. Kairys, 782
F.2d 1374, 1378 (7th Cir.1986) (same). We do, however, think Reimer is hard
pressed to explain what he was doing when he stood outside the Jewish
property in Lublin, or at the edge of the pit, carrying a firearm, if not serving as
an armed guard.
8

We, however, do note that the only decision upon which the district court relied
in reaching its conclusion was withdrawn and revised subsequent to entry of the
district court's judgment in this caseSee United States v. Kwoczak, 210
F.Supp.2d 638 (E.D.Pa.2002), amended by 2002 Dist. LEXIS 22271, 2002 WL
32137688 (E.D.Pa.2002). Rather than holding that belonging to the
Wachmannschaften or Battalion Streibel does not constitute membership in a
movement hostile to the United States, that decision now holds the opposite.
See Kwoczak, 2002 Dist. LEXIS 22271, at *9, 2002 WL 32137688, at *1. We
express no opinion on this issue.